The AWA project

The ACP-EU Culture (West Africa) – AWA (Art in West Africa) program is one of the six (06) regional projects selected as part of the ACP-EU Culture Program, a joint initiative of the European Union (EU) and the Organization of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS), through the establishment of the new decentralized regional mechanism intended to strengthen the competitiveness of cultural and creative industries in ACP countries.

Objectives

The ACP-EU CULTURE (West Africa) – AWA Program has a dual objective:

On the one hand, to support the boosting of the competitiveness of the cultural and creative industries (CCI) throughout the value chain (creation, production and dissemination) in the 16 West African countries through:

• Financial support for ICC operators in the area, in terms of structuring and aid for cultural and creative projects;
• The development of the skills of artists and cultural actors and the facilitation of access to the market and innovative financing, in particular by encouraging entrepreneurship and collaboration (co-creation, co-production and co-dissemination) between West African professionals and with their counterparts outside this area.

On the other hand, to help support the development of the digital economy in West Africa by supporting ICC actors in their digital transition.

The ACP-EU CULTURE Program (West Africa) – AWA will also contribute, through its role as a regional cultural hub, to the promotion of West African values with a view to stimulating the appropriation by West African youth of its own history, its identity, its realities and its potential, thereby contributing to the socio-economic development of the West African region. The ACP-EU CULTURE (West Africa) – AWA Program will help measure the impact of the cultural and creative ecosystem in job creation in West Africa.

More specifically, it concerns:

• Finance at least 160 innovative and structuring cultural and creative sector projects carried out by operators from the countries concerned, which promote the increase in economic revenue, which demonstrate real job creation capacities, and which write and/or describe new stories from the African continent;
• Contribute to the development of skills of around 335 actors in the cultural and creative sector of the countries concerned through the organization of activities to strengthen the competitiveness of West African artistic production, particularly in cultural entrepreneurship and image education;
• Facilitate the creation and operationalization of West African professional networks of actors in the creative sector through innovative models of creative collaborations (Maaya Entrepreneurship).

Duration & targets

The project will last 40 months (11/12/2020 to 11/04/2024) and will be deployed in 16 target countries in West Africa (Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Ivory Coast, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo, Mauritania).

The French Institute and the Kôrè Cultural Center in Ségou have extensive experience supporting cultural actors in West Africa. They have complementary expertise and have developed a proven methodology and tools.

Project grant

The ACP-EU CULTURE (West Africa) – AWA Program has been awarded a grant of a maximum amount of €6,200,000 by the Secretariat of the OACPS (Organization of African, Caribbean and of the Pacific), and the European Commission within the framework of the call for proposals Support for the ACP cultural and creative sectors (EuropeAid/167697/IH/ACT/MULTI) of the ACP program EU towards a viable cultural industry (ACP -EU Culture) through a grant contract for a maximum amount of €7,226,377.40 (n°FED/2020/418-121)